Tasha and Lacey both had to see the Vet today.
Tasha. She tends to have problems expressing her anal glands. I have to make sure I give her extra fiber in her diet. So a week or 10 days ago when she started scooting, I just added more fiber. Well, the scooting continued, and licking "back there," and this morning on our walk I ended up behind her at one point and realized her very private female part was red and swollen and ouch! looking. Vet says this may well have started with her being uncomfortable due to not evacuating her anal glands, but at this point, she has a bacterial infection. Vet did manually express those glands, they were only small though, so the fiber was doing what it was supposed to.
Tasha has antibiotic pills for 2 weeks and an ointment which I have to put on that part twice per day for 2 weeks. (I don't think the system allows us to type that word? Begins with vul and ends with va.) The ointment is both a steroid and a topical antibiotic. It will soothe the area so she can stop scooting and licking, while it heals. Now, at the best of times, Tasha does NOT like to be touched. She is getting better, I work on this with her daily. Came home and prepared to apply the ointment and she discovered, "You want to touch me WHERE?!!" This is really going to be a challenge!
Lacey. Reminder of her background: Lacey was found roaming the streets of Providence, I adopted her from Animal Control and had her spayed. At the time, the vet told me she'd had many, many litters. One of her nipples has not looked "right" from day one. It was a bit longer, wider, almost "full." The vet checks on it at her physical each year, and I keep watch. In July it was the same. On Wednesday, I noticed it was larger, turned blue / purple, and had a swollen area on her belly below it.
This is why you must get females spayed prior to their first heat! Lacey has a mammary gland tumor. It is small, barely the size of a pea. She will have surgery Friday, to remove the nipple and the tumor. That's right, Lacey will have a mastectomy. It is a day procedure. About 50% of these tumors are benign; which means 50% are malignant. The lump will be biopsied.
It is going to be a long 10 to 12 days, first leading up to the surgery and then waiting on the biopsy results. Once the vet gets in there, she can see if it has "strings" projecting to the other mammary glands, or if it invades the lymph nodes. She will remove only what is necessary, so I may not know until later that day the extent of the surgery. But as we've been watching this for over 2 years, the vet is hopeful that this is still quite small and limited to the one nipple.
Lacey feels and acts fine at this point, which in a way will make it worse on me taking her in Friday morning. I can't even tell her "you will feel better." Poor gal. If all goes as planned, she comes home with an E collar and stitches. If this develops into a larger area, she 'may' come home with a dressing. Let's not go there!
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